Replies

1. 
   bones | Sep 19, 2006 08:25pm | #1

   I just finished Jeff Jewitts finishing book fron Tauton, and tried what he suggested and it worked pretty good.  He listed a couple of options one was glue size, which is basially a wash coat of watered down (very) glue (my interpretation). He also suggested that sand the endgrain two higher grits than the top, which I did. I sanded with 220 on everything except the ends and used 400. I can only speak for dye, since thats what I use, but it took pretty evenly with little noticable difference. I'm not saying this will work for everything, because I just started using the method, but it seemed to work for me.  Good luck.

2. 
   pzgren | Sep 19, 2006 09:07pm | #2

   Hi Wanda,

   <<I'll soon beginning my next small woodworking project. I was finally able to find 2 large laminate pine panels.>>

     Why not make your own? It's relatively easy, and you can get them the exact size you need, rather than whatever happens to be commercially available. Making your own also lets you match grain, colour, etc.

   <<what is the best way to "clean up endgrain before applying stain? Usually I just roundover the edge of a table top with a roundover bit. But that still leaves a portion of the end grain "rough .. even sanding doesn't really smooth out the end grain. So the stain doesn't obsorb evening. Would it be better to use a block plane to clean the end of the boards and then router the edges?>>

     To clean up the end grain, a low angle (adjustable mouth) block plane, with a very sharp iron, set for a light cut, and a tight mouth will do the the trick. If the iron won't pull nice, clean, semi-transparent shavings from the end grain, it's not sharp enough. (They should look similar to those nice, thin, long-grain, final-smoothing shavings you peel off the face of a board.)

     Routering for the round-over will be ok, if your router bit is sharp; if not, you'll probably lose some of the smoothness on the end grain.

     A couple of alternative methods:

     Use a hollow (of hollow and rounds fame) plane of the appropriate size for rounding over the edge. Again, you'll need to ensure that the iron is very sharp. (Japan Woodworker has Chinese-style hollow & round planes in matched pairs for pretty reasonable prices -- about US $30 to $50 per pair -- depending on size -- or about US $300± for the complete 9 pair set. Clark & Williams also make very nice US/English-pattern H & R planes, but they are a bit more expensive.)

     Use a (low angle) block plane and/or a spoke shave to round over the edges. You may have to follow up with a (rounded profile) scraper to remove the plane/spokeshave "machine marks." You could also use a profiled scraper to go over the router-bit round-over for any necessary clean-up.

   _____

     A wash coat of shellac will help even out the stain absorption in end grain (and long grain, too). If you haven't already, there have been a couple of very informative threads on this very subject in the past couple of weeks that you might want to take a look at for exact techniques, shellac cut, etc.

     Some folks use epoxy to seal and fix knots into place. I've never done this, so I don't know what the "tricks of the trade" are for doing it, but it's something you may want to research.

     Hope this is of some use to you.

   Tschüß!

   Mit freundlichen holzbearbeitungischen Grüßen aus dem Land der Rio Grande!!

   James